Summer Sunset
by shiro-otaku10
Summary: A one shot childhood story about Hitsugaya Toshiro and Hayashi Amaya from The Zanpakutou Keeps Slicing . Will Amaya make Toshiro's summer different than any he ever had?


If you read the fanfiction "The Zanpakutou Keeps Slicing", you'll understand. (If you don't then PLEASE DO!) It's about Hayashi Amaya and her taichou (or former taichou), Hitsugaya Toshiro...and a memory from both their childhoods that neither will forget.

btw....sorry if the time concept throws you off -.- it's shinigami years.

***

It was just another normal, hot summer day. Hitsugaya Toshiro had always hated being in the heat, but this summer was even worse. Momo had left for shinigami training just several weeks ago, leaving him lonelier than ever in a little house in West Rukongai.

Yes, he had Granny. And a few watermelons. And a few neighbours who were freaked out whenever they saw him. Well, hey, at least he had some peace and quiet. That was a good thing, wasn't it?

Somehow he didn't believe himself.

He wolfed down yet another slice of watermelon, spitting out the seeds like bullets. Closing his eyes, he visualized his best friend sitting right there next to me, her kind smile which made him forget all his troubles. Toshiro ate, and ate, and ate even more, eyes still tightly shut.

After a while, his stomach felt like it was about to explode. So did his head. Letting out a quiet, unheard sigh, he opened them...

...and saw a girl.

She was (argh!) a few inches taller than him, with purple hair tied up in a messy ponytail. Her hair ribbon was stained with dirt, and so were her clothes. Large blue eyes met his own. But what surprised Toshiro most was her smile. It wasn't a kind, caring smile; nor was it a fake, polite smile. It seemed a bit sly, but not in a deceiving way, so that he was unknowingly drawn to it. Yet he couldn't exactly decipher its meaning.

Quickly, Toshiro looked away, putting on a scowl. Why was he staring at a strange girl who looked like she'd been rolling around in dirt all day?

Suddenly, something like a fist hit him hard in the arm. "Oy!" He rubbed his arm, stood up, and glared at her. She grinned back. "What was that for?" he asked, utterly irritated.

She leaned closer; it seemed like she was examining him. Then, she crossed her arms. Beaming proudly and defiantly, she exclaimed, "That was a test punch. I test punch everyone I meet. If they cower and start crying, then they're not worth my time. If they stand up to me, then I'll fight them. It's as simple as that."

What a weirdo. "So you want to fight then?" he asked.

"_Yeah!"_ Without a moment of hesitation, she charged.

"AMAYA!!!" Toshiro heard a loud scream from afar. So did the girl. She stopped, half a metre away from him, almost toppled over her own feet, then finally found her balance.

Someone walked into the yard. "Are you picking on someone again?" A purple-haired boy who looked about a hundred and thirty or so playfully asked the girl—Amaya, Toshiro guessed.

Picking on someone?! Did he look that little? He was about to open his mouth, then stopped, not in the mood.

"Yes," Amaya answered sheepishly.

The tall boy sighed. "Now, now, you're here to make friends, not clobber people. Remember, not everyone you know is like Kaminari-chan."

"Aww...hai, hai, Onii-chan. Now go away," she said, running off and climbing a tree.

With an I-give-up sigh and vague smile, the boy walked away. "Have fun." he called back.

Meanwhile, Toshiro was getting really curious. He wasn't about to talk, though. He had gotten into the habit of not talking. Momo was an exception. But still.

Amaya swung herself down from a branch. "I guess I'm not allowed to kill you anymore. How sad," she sighed jokingly.

"I'm not as weak as you think," Toshiro muttered.

"Well, okay, okay, I can sense your reiatsu all right."

"Wait...what? What the heck is that?"

"It's...well if you don't know, it's not my business to explain it to you." Like that ended it, she walked away again and scanned the yard with her eyes. She turned around again and looked at Toshiro. He looked away.

"Who are you, anyways?" He couldn't resist asking.

"I'm Amaya. I'm a girl from another district, as you can see. My father was a shinigami and my mom was a shinobi. So I visit here once in a while when I'm not in the 'ninja world'. I always come to different places, though. I suck at directions. It's not like anyone really takes care of me here—my brother's at Shinigami Academy and my parents are dead."

This was a real chatterbox. And she didn't mind telling him all that, in the first ten minutes we met? He found it weird. He gave a grunt.

"And who are you?"

"Toshiro." As if that explained it all. She didn't seem to care.

"Okay. Since I can't beat you up, let's be friends!"

What?! Full of surprises, she was. Toshiro grunted again.

And so the summer went on. During the daytime, he would always find her running around throwing rocks at people, or climbing trees. Sometimes she punched a random plant; she said it was to fight the urge of punching a real person.

He came to learn pretty much everything about her. Words spilled out of her mouth at a mile a minute. Which was all good, since he didn't do much talking. She was seventy-five. She had a best friend named Kaminari who broke everything she breathed on. She liked watermelons (coincidence?). When she couldn't sleep at night she went outside and stood in the rain until she got all soaked, but didn't care because it was so fun. For hobbies, she enjoyed travelling between the worlds and finding people to fight.

Gradually he grew to like her, and gradually he grew to not feel so desolate every day. No, he didn't stop missing Momo. But this was somehow different. Very different.

For the first time since Momo had left, he felt happy. Happy. He didn't believe it himself.

One mid-afternoon they were devouring watermelons. Without meaning to—it was a natural instinct—Toshiro showed her how he could eat a whole giant slice and spit out the seeds like bullets. "Oh yeah?" she said. "I can do even better." She gulped down a huge bite and shot the seeds out of her mouth, hitting a tree across the road. Toshiro was amused. Not that he would admit it, of course.

She had amazing prowess with a gun, too. She could shoot at a target from fifteen meters away and hit the bull's eye, every time.

Sometime near the end of summer, the two who had grown strangely close sat on the grass in the sunset, silently watching the sky grow pink and then dark. Silence...how weird. Perhaps Amaya had run out of things to say.

Suddenly she piped up. "You have a best friend too, right?"

_Momo,_ he almost blurted out loud, but stopped himself just in time. "Where'd you get that?" he said instead.

"Your granny told me. Her name's Momo, isn't it?"

Hearing the name made Toshiro suddenly feel the empty space in his heart again. "Un. (yes)" he answered.

"You promised to protect her."

He didn't answer. He felt she was trespassing, yet he didn't feel so uncomfortable at the same time. It perplexed him.

"That's so sweeeet!" she exclaimed. Before he had time to react, she started talking again. "But I wouldn't need a guy to say that for me. I could protect myself, anytime, anywhere."

"I wasn't thinking of saying that for you," he mumbled. It was true. He didn't feel the need to.

"Good. By the way, I'm going to join Shinigami Academy soon, too," she declared happily.

So she would leave too. "Oh. You too, huh?"

"Will you miss me?" she probed teasingly.

"Ah...just a bit." He hadn't exactly expressed himself to anyone besides Momo—but he didn't exactly mind. Not so much.

"I'll miss you too. Hope you grow tall, _Shiro-chan!"_

"Oi!!"

Amaya ran across the road, laughing, and Toshiro chased after her. He wasn't annoyed at the use of the nickname. In fact, he had come to associate her with Momo. Though the two were, of course, very different.

It occurred to him why. Their personalities, of course. Their looks. The way they acted.

And also—something he had avoided thinking of—the way he felt about them. Momo would always be his best friend, like his sister, the one he needed to protect with his life. Amaya, on the other hand, was free-spirited. She didn't need anyone taking care of her, and Toshiro never felt like taking care of her.

He ran, and ran more. Their shadows grew long, and stars began appearing. He wasn't tired. He felt alive.

Finally she ran out of breath and came to a stop. "You...got me..." she rasped. Toshiro halted and panted too.

"I guess we won't see each other again, after this." Amaya looked at him. Their eyes locked and came into understanding. Somehow, each thought exactly the same thing—that they were bound to meet again.

"On second thought...maybe we will." A smile from Amaya. Toshiro came the closest to returning the smile he'd ever been that summer. In fact...he did. Just a tiny little unnoticeable one.

"Ha. Well, ja-ne."

Yet they both stood there. Then Amaya walked away, slowly, then faster and faster.

That night, it rained. Toshiro got out of bed and stood in the rain, letting it soak him all over. What a strange summer, he thought. A strange summer, indeed.

And a strange girl. A girl that he'd never forget...

***

And that's a memory from both of their childhoods. Hope you enjoyed it!! (yes, big mood change from the fanfic =P)

PLLEEAASSEE RREEEVVVIIIEEWW *takes out Kyodan in preparation* ;)


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